Oneshot: Misunderstandings
by colouredred
Summary: "Their eyes meet from across the room, and he finds that he is standing as well. It might not be the right time for him to be saying this, but so long as he able to explain, clearly and coherently, he has already decided that he is okay with whatever her answer is." Makoto Sunakawa/OC


**Disclaimer: I don't own 'Ore Monogatari!'. Kiyoko is mine.**

* * *

 _MISUNDERSTANDINGS_

"Takeo," she says, "Fight me."

It is in this manner that Kiyoko Tachibana first introduced herself to them. Though she hadn't ever spoken to them before then, and neither did they know of her, she hadn't wasted a moment in hesitating to walk up to them on the second floor hallway of their high school. "I hear you're the strongest," she had told Takeo, "So fight me."

Perhaps what Makoto Sunakawa likes best about the memory is that, not once throughout the entire encounter, did she ever look his way.

Following this initial introduction were the months that brought with them a scattered collection of coincidences. She became unavoidable. Without fail, each and every time they pass her at school, she stops them to ask the same thing of Takeo. Occasionally – and they are the moments Sunakawa likes best to watch – she doesn't even have the patience to wait that long, and so begins by launching herself at Takeo with a kick or punch. For the most part, it isn't a bother because Takeo can always block her attacks. The times when she isn't attacking him, or when she is picking herself up from the floor after failing at it, Kiyoko and Sunakawa make casual conversation off to the side. He never thinks much of why it is so easy to talk to her, besides the fact that her way of making friends is incredibly strange.

Still, Kiyoko Tachibana fits in well with the pattern of their life. She even, as if for the sake of convenience, arrives pre-announced, always with the same tagline – " _Takeo, fight me!"_

This time, Takeo is walking with his back turned to her. If not for the cry that comes first, Takeo might not have had the time to turn around and raise his hands in defends. He manages it at the last second, catching Kiyoko flying towards him feet-first. The sheer force of her kick is enough to push him back two steps, but he budges no further.

The momentum leaves her to fall to the ground. She lands on her bottom with a dull thump, her black hair hanging in disarray before her eyes.

Takeo recovers his senses after the initial surprise. "…Are you hurt, Tachibana?"

Kiyoko runs a hand across her face, pushing back the long, ebony locks. Sunlight hits her freckles cheeks, catches in her hazel eyes, and she is grinning up at him. Lacking no energy, she has jumped to her feet in the space of a heartbeat.

"Good block, Takeo!" she declares enthusiastically, "I might have to start trying different tactics out on you now!"

Takeo frowns, glancing around at their surroundings. He had been caught on his way inside his apartment. She is surprisingly apathetic for someone who could've just fallen from a balcony that is more than a few stories high. "You shouldn't try fighting me in a place like this." He warns her, before adding as his curiosity mounts, "What are you doing here, anyway?"

Kiyoko, to his knowledge, lives about twenty minutes away from them. There is no logical correlation between her being here and where she should be. The fact that she answers him doesn't help him understand, as all she says is, "Homework."

"Huh?"

She taps her chin, realising how vague of an explanation it is. "Ah, well what I mean is that I've been paying Suna to help me study for finals. I'm here to study with him now."

"Oh," says Takeo, before laughing, "That's a really good idea."

"But it means you actually have to practice." She adds wisely.

Takeo, still beaming, nods. "Never mind then!"

"Um…?" A small voice intrudes upon the conversation, catching them off guard, "Takeo?"

Takeo glances down at the girl peaking around his shoulder. "Oh, Yamato, are you alright?" He asks, wondering if he had accidently hit her during Kiyoko's attack.

Kiyoko studies her with a frown, her lips drawn into a thin line that makes her look more intimidating than she is. Though her strength and reputation have always been imposing, it is an infamous truth that her smile is surprisingly cute.

"Yamato?" she echoes, "You're Takeo's girlfriend?"

The girl catches her eye and nods shortly. That is all the answer needed before Kiyoko rushes forward, pushing Takeo aside as best she can, in order to shake her hand vigorously.

"I'm Kiyoko Tachibana," she introduces herself quickly, smiling cheerfully, "It's nice to meet you Yamato!"

"Oh, ah-?" Yamato hardly gets a sound out before she interrupted.

"Takeo told me about you, but I'd never have guessed that you might be even cuter than he described you."

Yamato is spared having to answer by a door that slams open behind her. The cool voice that interrupts Kiyoko solicits a strange look from her – only Yamato is close enough to notice that she's blushing.

"You're scaring her." Makoto Sunakawa remarks, making an absent-minded but well-timed appearance on scene.

Looking over Yamato's head, Kiyoko finds Sunakawa standing just inside his apartment's doorway, framing a casual silhouette. She greets him with a nod and a smile.

"Oh," Yamato stutters, "N-not really…Um, I'm Rinko Yamato, by the way."

"I figured," Kiyoko laughs good-naturedly, "I hope you don't mind, Yamato, but I'm not going to take it easy on Takeo just because he has a girlfriend now. I hope you're up for fixing his injuries when I'm finished with him."

"What injuries?" Takeo wonders, "I'm not even bruised."

Yamato glances quickly between her and Takeo, blushing bright red before she declares loudly, "I'll definitely take care of him!"

Kiyoko is glad to hear it, for as much as looking at the blushing couple makes her feel awkward and intrusive.

"It doesn't really matter," Sunakawa interjects, "You haven't been able to beat him even once yet, Kiyoko."

"Kiyoko- _senpai_." She corrects him habitually.

Sunakawa responds with a heavy sigh, muttering, "Why am I the only one who has to call you senpai?"

Kiyoko catches his low words regardless, shuffling a few steps close to reply confidentially. "You're not," she assures, "Takeo is just the only kouhai I consider cool enough to _not_ have to use honorifics."

There is no reaction on his face and, even though he meets her gaze, she still finds it impossible to tell what he's thinking. If he were jealous, she would never know it unless he told her explicitly. She doesn't have that talent for sensitivity to lead her to wonder why Sunakawa closes the distance between them, nor to understand why he looks at her and no one else whenever she is around.

"You think Takeo's cool?" Yamato pipes quietly.

The name in itself has her fired up. "Yeah!" Kiyoko declares, "He's my rival! Once I beat Takeo in a fight, I can finally say that I'm the strongest person that our school!"

"She's been trying for months," Sunakawa adds unhelpfully, glancing to Kiyoko, "Isn't it time to give up yet?"

" _No._ In fact, Takeo, you better prepare yourself right now-!"

The threat has no sooner left her lips before Sunakawa's fingers close around her wrist. She is pulled back, stumbling, and she hits his chest with a thump. Even then, his grip doesn't relax and she is kept pinned to spot so that there is not a single chance to pull away and move into a ready fighting stance.

"Come on, senpai. We have studying to be doing." Sunakawa tells her, acting fast to avoid a fight. It is only because she has been caught off guard that he finds it so easy to begin dragging her away.

Even then, she refuses to complain about how tightly he holds her hand. She is afraid that saying something might end the moment prematurely, and she wants to enjoy the sensation, the feeling of their fingers slipping easily together.

"Next time!" Kiyoko promises Takeo, adamant that she has the last word.

There is no time for him to reply before Sunakawa has pulled her inside his apartment and left the door slamming shut in their wake. He still doesn't let go of her hand, guiding her through his apartment even though there is no real need. She has been there enough times before to know the way to his room almost as well as he does himself.

"Hey, Suna," Kiyoko begins, "How'd you know I was here, anyway?"

"You and Takeo are too loud." He answers shortly.

"…Oh." She is a little embarrassed by him saying so, and it glad that she faces his back so he there is no way he can see how much she blushes. By the time they reach his bedroom, she has already shaken the feeling away.

Their fingers fall apart as they walk inside, allowing Kiyoko to dump her backpack by the foot of his bed. It is easy to feel at home here, routine, even. She collapses back onto his bed without another word, not noticing that Sunakawa is staring as her skirt rides up her thighs. He wonders, briefly, if her skin would be soft to touch, like a rose petal.

"You also shouldn't try fighting people in a skirt," he adds offhandedly, "I'm the only one you should be flashing."

"Wha-?" She assures herself that he is joking, and pulls down the hem of her skirt, "No one is seeing anything of mine!"

Sunakawa collapses into the chair at his desk, swivelling around to face her. "But they already have, every time you try to kick Takeo like before."

Rolling to her side, she is able to offer a glare that more fully conveys her irritation. He finds it hard to take her seriously when her freckles cheeks are glowing so brilliantly red, her lips pulled into a pout.

"Study." he reminds them both, offering Kiyoko the distraction she looked to need. He hadn't thought that it would be so easy to render her speechless.

She nods curtly and sits up on the bed. The springs creak as she shuffles forward pulls her bag up to her lap. The contents are emptied out over his sheets, and looking at the mess, it is no wonder that she has such bad grades. Kiyoko can hardly keep her books in order, let alone her school grades.

"What did you want to study?" she asks.

Sunakawa watches her fingers pick at the pages of her notes. "Maths," he decides, "What are you working on in class for that?"

She shrugs, not knowing the answer. It is easier just to pluck her notebook from the rest of them and hand it over to him.

She lays it flat in front of him, letting him flip through it at his leisure. It is full of half-finished equations and a few crude drawings of her maths teacher – which, he notes, are not actually half bad. Kiyoko stands beside him, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She's not sure if she's nervous being this close to Sunakawa, or if it's simply just her usual impatience.

"Linear equations." Sunakawa realises, finding her latest notes.

"Yeah, that," she agrees, sighing, "…Whatever they are."

He glances up, perplexed. "You've already done a few of the questions. How do you not even manage to understand what you're getting right?" he mutters, hand now resting in his blonde curls.

She leans forward, elbows pressed to his desk. Her eyes meet him, glittering brightly from beneath the curtain of hair that falls forward over her cheek.

"It's maths," she tells him, "I hate maths."

Sunakawa doesn't mean to become distracted, but he can't help but watch her lips move as she talks. There are times when she could say anything at all to him and it wouldn't matter, as he is preoccupied by the sweetness of her voice. He likes how she sounds when she whispers to him, as if she is telling him the secrets of a Kiyoko that only he is allowed to see.

She pushes back the ebony cobwebs from her eyes, frowning at him. "Suna?"

He doesn't answer her straight away, but resolves to let her know just what is bothering him by the end of the day. Just as she lets him know her as well as he does, a reciprocation of that trust has been coming since the day they first met. If he is to begin anything, then he thinks that it may as well be now.

Before she can say another word, his hand has snaked around her waist. "Here," he tells her, "Sit." With his fingers pressed against her hips, it is easy to pull her onto his lap. Kiyoko finds it impossible to decipher the meaning behind his actions, as he gives nothing away in his expression; not even a blink.

"Um…" she murmurs, eyes wide.

Sunakawa continues to act is if nothing is wrong, as if neither of them are blushing and steadfastly ignoring the chances to catch the other's eye. "Linear equations," he begins to explain calmly, "Are pretty much the same as algebra. You solve for the unknowns – like in this question here, you're solving for 'x'."

Their usual distance dwindles to be nothing more than the small space between his lips and the nape of her neck. As he speaks, his breath washes over her and she finds that she likes the feeling more than she cares to admit.

"You've got most of them right," he says, "Except that seven minus five isn't three."

His arms tighten around her waist, securing her to his lap. His fingertips promise to be warm and gentle against her skin, though they rest over her shirt and not under it, as Kiyoko almost wishes they did. She isn't sure how much longer she can stand sitting like this. Her heart thumps heavily in her chest, and she holds her breath, suddenly conscious of breathing too loudly.

"Suna," she mutters faintly, "Someone might misunderstand."

She can imagine how his reply would feel against her skin. "Misunderstand?" he echoes.

Kiyoko pushes his hands away from her waist and jumps up quickly. Her hip bumps his desk and she nearly stumbles as she steps back hastily. He has never seen her as uncoordinated as she moves now, which surprises him.

"You know what I mean," she insists, and she is right, "So don't pretend you don't."

Sunakawa's fingers run through his hair, pushing it away from his face. Their eyes meet from across the room, and he finds that he is standing as well. It might not be the right time for him to be saying this, but so long as he able to explain, clearly and coherently, he has already decided that he is okay with whatever her answer is.

It is the first time he has ever considered being rejected, but if it is by Kiyoko, he doesn't particularly mind. It is, however, a little ironic that the first girl he has come to like might also be the first to not like him back.

He catches her hand before she can take another step away. "Please," Sunakawa says quietly, "Misunderstand."

He doesn't think much about why or how he is kissing her, only that he is. He has thought about kissing Kiyoko Tachibana for a while now, so it feels good to finally do it. She is more than he imagined her to be, probably because she has far more experience with relationships than he does himself. It lasts only a few, short and bittersweet seconds but it is long enough to satisfy him, to know that she isn't refusing the kiss, and he finds that her lips are warm, soft, and she tastes just how her whispers sound.

"…Kiyoko?"

She has turned bright red. She feels the heat of the blush from her toes to the tips of her ears and she knows how she looks and it embarrasses her to let anyone see her so flustered. She hides her face in her hands, missing the soft smile that Sunakawa wears as he watches her.

He takes a step closer so that it is easier to hug her. She doesn't resist as he pulls her in, one hand tangling in her hair as he presses her head to his chest. The only sign he gets that she is okay with being touched like this is the way in which her hands begin to wrap around him, fingers curling into fists against his shoulders.

"Sorry for not asking if you were okay with it first," he murmurs, "I know that I'm probably not the sort of person you usually date. I'm a year below you and I'm not as strong as Takeo-"

"I don't care about age and you don't need to be strong like Takeo," she interjects, voice muffled by his chest, "Unless what you actually want is to be my rival, not my boyfriend."

Her words surprise him enough that he is left speechless, his grip loosening just enough that she is able to sneak a little space between them. She keeps her hands on his shoulders. Though her cheeks are still red with blush, her hazel eyes shine brightly as she smiles. It is reassuring to know that she is more happy than she is annoyed with him.

" _I like you_."

They both speak at the same time, their confessions overlapping. Kiyoko's blush returns with full force, and she ducks her head so that her hair hides her face. Although his hand rises to his mouth as if he is turning shy as well, Sunakawa doesn't mind if she sees him turning red. He is actually trying to stop himself from bursting into laughter, but his restraint lasts seconds before breaking into peals that ring in the silence.

"Sorry," he laughs, ignoring Kiyoko's stare, "That's all I wanted to say. I suppose we should get back to studying now."

"…I'm not sitting on your lap again," she remarks, "It's distracting."

"I liked it." He admits easily, back to his usual cool temperament.

Kiyoko glances to the side shyly. "I did too – but that's not the point!"

"Sit on the bed then." He suggests, turning around to pick up her notes. She's not quite sure how he does it, but Sunakawa acts as though he didn't just kiss her and confess to her only moments ago. Kiyoko goes along with it simply because he is.

They end up sitting side by side on the bed, backs against the wall. Their legs stretch out before them, and Kiyoko shuffles closer so that their thighs press against each other. Sunakawa pretends to be flipping through her notes instead of thinking about the warmth of her skin, the perfume that surrounds her as she leans towards him.

"You don't mind, do you?" she asks quietly.

Sunakawa turns to stare down at her, studying her expression as best as he can from their odd angles. He knows that she is only talking about sitting together, but he pretends it is otherwise because it gives him the excuse he needs to reach across and wind his fingers around hers.

"No," he says, their hands tightening around each other, "…I'm happy to do this if it's with you, Kiyoko-senpai."

Her nose wrinkles as she hides her smile in his shoulder. "Suna, you don't have to call me senpai if you really don't want to," she murmurs, wondering if this is how it feels to have someone else's heart beat in unison with hers, "Calling me your girlfriend would be fine as well."

Sunakawa smiles and their eyes meet as she looks up at last. "Okay," he tells her, his fingers slipping over hers, "I'm happy to do that too – so long as it's you who asks."

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 **I kept slipping into present tense while writing this so I ended up rewriting the whole thing in it (oops). Hope you liked it and please leave a review (like, maybe, do you like this style of tense? and is Kiyoko remotely likable?).**


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